How To Make An Emergency Preparedness Plan for Your Family

Who Needs Emergency Preparedness?

With everything going on in the world today Emergency Preparedness is becoming a better and better idea… at least for those of us  with hopes on  on living thru the emergencies that life throws at us!

 ”THE” Emergency Preparedness Question…

So notice the woman below, her emergency preparedness level looks to be quite low as now she appears to be left without food.

What if she had 3 months worth of food she had stored up as she was purchasing regular groceries during the regular times?

The answer is, she would now have three months of eating food instead of being a refugee and perhaps living and perhaps not…

And what of her emergency preparedness plan?  Do you see it in place?  It seems to be.. uh oh.. I have no food, I am going to die unless someone real nice happens along and wants to feed me.

Just What Does Emergency Preparedness Mean?

Emergency preparedness means, I do have food, I have a way to warm it up and prepare it so that it is life saving and enjoyable.  I have other things I need as well, such as a flash light or a blanket or spare batteries or a radio or walki talki’s to communicate with my family all around our property.

You will probably find your self in some sort of emergency if you live long enough.. Emergency preparedness just means you are prepared to keep living even when that happens.

Either way a emergency preparedness plan for some is exactly what you see in the picture… doing nothing, hoping nothing happens and if it does, deciding you have no food, no water, no supplies, nothing you need to keep living. 

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When Is A Good Time To Prepare?

What Is Emergency Preparedness?

The most simple way to prepare for an emergency is to put a little thought into what you think may be the most likely thing to happen and then to plan on what to do in the event that it does happen.
In other words emergency preparedness simply means you are prepared to live thru an emergency or disaster to what ever level of comfort and safety you pre-planned for.

Emergency Preparedness Examples:

And example… if you live in Oklahoma in tornado alley, it would be a great idea to have
a tornado shelter, and to stock it with items you would need in the event that you house was no longer where you left it when you come up out of your shelter.

Or if you lived in New Orleans by a levee, you may wish to have an inflatable raft and some emergency water, food, and supplies… perhaps some dry clothes sealed in a large plastic bag.
And as there were roving gangs of thugs I would certainly offer you to consider that your emergency preparedness plan would include a way to protect yourself and loved ones.

You may wish to prepare your self physically and mentally for the challenge that you feel that you have a reasonable expectation of experiencing.  This may include looking at instances of this event in the past and asking yourself what would you want to have if it happened again… to you.

Emergency Preparedness Facts:

Did you know that over 90% of Americans lived in an area with moderate and above threat of fire, hurricane, severe storms, tornado, or earthquake?
And did you know that less than 11% of them have any emergency preparation?  In other words when they are faced with a fire, or an earthquake, or a tornado or severe storm then the best they can hope for is that someone comes to help them…

What about your pets?  Have you considered what would happen to them if you were met with a disaster such as a flood, severe storm or fire?  And you wanted to go to a shelter and they did not take pets?
By the way you DO NOT want to go to a shelter.  You almost NEVER want to end up with a large group of desperate, hungry, scared people, ever.

Emergency Preparedness, How Good Is Your Plan?

Emergency preparedness means you don’t have to, that you have prepared and planned and now have what you need to live in some level of comfort and safety.

That is a pretty sad plan… to me it is equal to covering the gas tank indicator in your car with tape so you can’t see how much gas you have and then going for a long drive…. eventually the gas will run out even if you didn’t see the tank was getting empty.

And your plan now may be to start walking… emergency preparedness may be to watch your gas level and know where you are driving so you can determine if you should purchase more gasoline for your trip…
And for those of you who are traveling a great distance over unknown territory it certainly is not unreasonable to have a spare can of gas in your trunk, or at least a gas can.

Emergency Preparedness isn’t just having a gun by the door

Bottom line… think of your hiearchy of needs that all of us humans have… we need and pretty much in this order:
1) Air
2) Water and Food
3) Shelter from the elements
I know many people are trying  to figure HBO and their IPOD in between numbers 2 and 3 however believe it or not, they come way down the list when you are in a situation where what you most care about is living thru the next day…

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 My Own Emergency Preparedness Kits

When I put together my emergency preparedness kits.. yes I said kit(s) as I have more than one… because I have more than one family member who would need an emergency preparedness kit and I may be stuck in a couple of different places where an emergency
preparedness kit would be handy… for example:

1) home
2) car
3) place of work
4) gym locker
5) any other place I frequent often…

For example If I had school age children, they would have a plan for what to do in emergencies as well as a kit… I would have a small kit in their lockers at school so they could get to it and they would know, who to listen to and what to do in a variety of situations.
Emergency preparedness is more than matches and a can of soup, it is also the pre-planning of what you will do to be the safest and most comfortable in an emergency situation.

What Should I have to Feel I Have Reached Emergency Preparedness?

Emergency preparedness means that if you are faced with an emergency, that you are prepared to survive to what ever level of comfort you have planned for before the emergency arrived.
Meaning, do you have food and water, shelter and dry clothes?  Communications and a medical kit?  Spare toothbrush and toilet paper?

Do you think emergency preparedness would call for you having any of those items if you needed them and were no longer in a position to get them easily during or after an emergency?

And the better we can teach you to prepare: for that and be ready for that, the better you will do and the more you will be in position to be of help to those around you.

No one likes thinking about living thru a disaster, and it’s not much fun to think of emergency preparedness… but it gets much more enjoyable when you have clean water to drink when the water is off… when you have a clean up kit and a med kit when a family member or yourself is injured…

So consider creating a kit and a plan for your family as emergency preparedness can not only make you more comfortable which is a pretty good thing but it can save your lives…

It is time to have a plan.. once a disaster or emergency is upon you, it is too late to make an emergency preparedness plan for yourself and loved ones.

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